Great songwriters spend their lives baring their souls onto the page, hoping some sliver of truth reaches and resonates with the masses.

But for Matthew West, multiple ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter/Artist of the Year winner, American Music Award and Billboard Music Award winner and four-time GRAMMY® nominee, the masses have come to him, baring their souls and sharing their stories.

And forever changing the way he approaches the music he makes.

Produced by Pete Kipley (MercyMe, Crowder, Phil Wickam, Robert Randolph) Live Forever finds Matthew West digging deeper into the well of stories —over 40,000 true stories shared with him by people

all over the world—stories that six years and three albums later have had a profound ripple effect.

“If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that storytelling is contagious,” West says. “So many people have been made to feel that their story is insignificant, that they don’t matter, or that their story is somehow disqualified because they’ve got too many messed up parts to it, and ‘Why would it matter?’”

But West has answered that question before in Story of Your Life (2010), Into the Light (2012) and now in Live Forever. “Each story told, awakens something in people who have yet to find the courage to tell their own,” he shares. “They begin thinking, ‘If God can use that person’s story, maybe He could use mine,’ and a chain reaction begins. One story goes out and more stories come back. One by one, these songs encourage people to be the storytellers in their own lives, wherever they are, because your story can help someone else and their story can help someone else. Telling our stories reminds us that we are not alone.”

He continues, “With my last two records, I was inspired by chapters in our stories that have already been written: life in a broken home, the loss of a loved one, forgiving someone who has hurt you, the guilt of past mistakes. Many people share with me the chapters that are behind them, the ones that still haunt them, ones that haven’t found redemption yet. With Live Forever, I felt it was time to acknowledge that none of us have a perfect story. Every story has its share of broken chapters. But then ask the questions, ‘Is this it? Are we just supposed to walk wounded through the rest of our stories?’ We could spend the rest of our lives focusing on the past, or we could dare to look ahead, and choose to believe that with God we’ve been given a chance to start new, and the best of our stories have yet to be written.”

This is the direction West had in mind as he returned to that cabin in the woods of Tennessee, a songwriter’s retreat where his previous two albums were envisioned. To make a record bursting with color and life – not just the life we have here, but the life that is to come. “With so much defeat all around us, people need to know there is victory. Maybe my job in reading a lot of these desperate stories is to extract the hope. I wanted to write songs that encourage people to remember that this life is not the destination. It’s a journey to the place of our ultimate hope, Heaven. This was a very decisive record in that way.”

Our new album WITH LOVE FROM is out now! Listen here: https://ffm.to/alyandaj-withlovefrom

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Started writing songs at 5 when he began playing the Drums, Guitar, Harmonica, and Piano. Growing up he performed with his rock band, the school concert band, chorus, and jazz band. He received a Full Scholarship through ASCAP Scoring Music for Film at New York University.  He is also an actor, writer, and producer and is currently recording a new record at Great Divide Studios in Aspen, CO. Film and television licenses include HBO, Showtime, Lifetime, Hallmark, and Bravo. Collaborations include: Jacob Young, Barenaked Ladies, Supersonic Jets, One Republic, and Rick James.(ASCAP Member)

Ryan Morris aka Dreamkid has always been obsessed with the feelings of nostalgia, not to mention all things music. Entering the world slap bang into the mid-eighties was a major contributing factor for his love of synthwave music. Having grown up on the sunny eastern shores of South Africa and spending most of his youth surfing, skateboarding, playing guitar and listening to Blink-182, he inevitably ended up starting a pop punk band during his school years. 

Relocating to the UK in 2005 and a few years later, Ryan found himself signed to independent US label Sumerian Records in his alternative rock band New Volume. But it was through his love of 80s style pop songs however, that he discovered the New Retro Wave YouTube channel in 2015. Ryan says of that fateful day, “I always loved 80s music but when I discovered this whole synth scene I was completely sucked in.”
The global pandemic and resultant lockdown saw the birth of the Dreamkid persona and a time to hone in on his unique synthwave songwriting craft. With his androgynous look, wild care free attitude and together with his love of performing on stage, Dreamkid is hoping to stir up the world of synthwave with his own brand of nostalgic melodies.

Ryan Blakeley Smith is following